Posts Tagged ‘Warhammer-Online’

Awww, this is rather sad. Once upon a time, Mythic created classic MMO Dark Age of Camelot, one of the few real alternatives to EverQuest back in its heyday, and classic MUD Dragon’s Gate before that. Later it also warred out the warrisomely war-packed Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which recently went bye-bye itself. Since then, Mythic’s been in a strange spot, unable to find a new niche with middling arena brawler Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes and eventually, the utterly wretched mobile version of Dungeon Keeper. Now, however, it’s in no spot, as it no longer exists. EA has shut down the studio once and for all.

Oh ho, the plot thickens! Or rather, it congeals from thin air, because I suppose there wasn’t much of a plot before this. EA yanked the cord on Warhammer Online’s servers (and then presumably bit it in half and bathed in its blood), and that was that. The end. Roll credits. But now a former Mythic developer who’s currently working on Camelot Unchained has revealed the existence of a single-player, server-free version of the sadly short-lived (by MMO standards) game, and he’s pleading that EA release it for history’s sake.

Warhammer Online, we hardly knew ye. OK actually that’s not true at all. But still, it is a bit weird when you realize that Mythic’s fantastical dig through Games Workshop’s toy meticulously crafted figure chest launched in 2008. Five years is hardly a mail-clad, blood-drenched spring chicken, but it is rather young by MMO standards. And yet, here we are. Mythic’s deal with Games Workshop has run its course, and the once tighter-than-a-too-small-sweater war buddies have decided to part ways.

Love rats? Patch 1.4.0 hits the now free-to-play-for-the-first-10-levels Warhammer Online this Thursday, and will bring all kinds of tasty additions. You can read about them here, but to summarise: revamped Realm vs. Realm combat, 4 new playable Skaven classes, a new Skaven dungeon for levels 65+, and two new pay-for Realm vs. Realm packs, one for endgame players that also accelerates character progression and another containing pets, dyes, mounts and haircuts. Details on those new classes follows. Squeak!

I had a pet rat as a kid, but he went wrong and we had to release him in a forest. There’s a lesson in that. If something in your life goes wrong, take it to a forest and leave it there. Never fails.Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a twist to even this, however. As far as I’m able to ascertain, there’s no Smallworld game which you could receive a facebook invite for. It simply doesn’t exist. There’s some other games from Days of Wonder, sure, but unless something has changed suddenly, there simply isn’t a Facebook-integrated Smallworld game. In fact, there’s not even one you can play online. However, there is SmallWorlds – plural – social world thing which seems to fit the bill. This story’s been picked up by other newspapers today. We’ve contacted the Mail and all the developers for comment.

UPDATE: We may have reached the bottom of this, speaking to Roger Pearson who wrote the apparent origin-story up for Mercury Press Agency…Read the rest of this entry »

Well, up to the first 10 levels anyway. It’s quite the move; replacing the traditional 10-day trial, you’re now able to play Warhammer Online as much as you like. You can’t go past the first ten levels, but that still allows you to try all the character classes to see if any fixes. Also, rather than the enormo-client download, the game’s been re-jigged to work on a Guild-Wars-esque streaming basis. So you can just go and get it here and start playing. If I get a chance, I plan to actually go back and have a nose – I’ve heard some interesting word on stuff they’ve been doing on the quiet, and I want to see if it’s true or not. How’s RPS’ Warhammer-playing readers finding it?

Once more unto the breach of reviewing that which is many ways unreviewable… This time around, I’m taking a sober look over on Eurogamer at the Euro-state of Mythic’s MMORPG Warhammer Online, nearly a year on from its high-profile launch. You’ll find my ruminations lurking over yonder, and including chin-scratchy nuggets such as these:

Mythic don’t want you to waste your time saving up money for a bigger rucksack. They just want to you to fight – ideally, to fight other players. The game’s greatest triumph is a largely seamless blend between punching NPCs and punching real people – no need for different skill sets or alternative armour. The enemy is the enemy. That row of number keys and a few team-mates, be they anonymous or known chums, are all you need. The sad side-effect of such single-mindedness is a glaring loss of personality.

If you’ve not yet grasped the squig and tried Mythic’s Warhammer Online for yourself, then now might be a good time. The main website has just launched a 10-day free trial for the game. But Europeans are excluded from the offer. And, ah, okay, I missed this completely: Euros have a separate offer entirely.

More or less cut off from my sugary internet drip-feed for a couple of weeks due to a house move (look ma, I’m in That London!), the very idea of playing an MMO seems absolutely ludicrous to me right now – it’s like dreaming of going swimming while stranded in the desert, or asking for a Big Mac in Burger King. What I can do while I wait is appreciate Mythic’s cheeky viral hints as to upcoming Warhammer Online updates. Remember all those classes they cut a while before release? A couple of ‘em were reinstated last month, and now it looks like the remaining fellas are inbound too. Either that or Mythic are just really rude about bloggers’ haircuts.Read the rest of this entry »

Mythic have announcified two new careers for Warhammer Online, due to appear this Winter. And they’re beefcake. The Empire’s Knight of the Blazing Sun, and the Dark Elf Black Guard will be available to the game’s current 750,000 players, as part of the first major patch, 1.1. Discussed by Mark Jacobs in his first State Of The Game address, we’ve cobbled together the highlights of the rest of the included updates below.

Another one of our favourite things has sort of come back into life. We’ve only mentioned consolevania in passing before, but the web-TV show (which sprouted TV spin-off Videogaiden) has returned for a series 4. Except rather than their traditional shows, they’re doing a rolling-feature model, with youtube videos added as and when they’re finished. Thankfully, one of the first three is PC-game related, thus justifying a linkage. Rab is embedding himself in Warhammer Online to return in the world’s most long-form review. That he seems to be even more of geek than yours truly bodes well, but… well, surely nothing can go wrong?